Europe VS US

It's not so much a willingness to defend one's homeland, it's simply a matter of the average American being better armed than any other civilian in the world. We have a ratio of roughly nine guns per person in this country, that's by far more than enough to arm every man and woman of fighting age with something that can do some serious damage. And what's also unique about the US as opposed to Europe is the prevalence of military weaponry amongst the citizenry.

No one is knocking a European's will to defend, it's simply a matter of American citizens being better equipped and better practiced for such things. Having the will to fight is the most important thing, but having an AR-15 in the bedroom certainly tilts the odds.

[edit on 2010/1/2 by cyberdude78]

reply to post by cyberdude78


While I don´t disagree with your basical opinion, I think there is a prevalent false impression of the extent of gun ownership in Europe - of course different from country to country.

But on the whole Guns are rather common in most of Europe - we dont have the grannies with the odd Saturday night special tucked away in the cupboard, but especially guns in trained hands. Not only is there a long standing civil hunting and sport shooting community, there are also a lot more former servicemen due to a longer lasting conscription tradition - men who at least at some point in their life "enjoyed" training in military shooting and tactics.

The basic difference is that one needs licensing for weapons in Europe, but it is actually not too hard to obtain these licenses, and many million guns and more or less trained shooters are readily available.